Step in...World has boundaries, one after another closed door; so let's share something that's still free, open--word.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Dive Into a Great Read...Interview with Author of 'Exodus Lost' S.C. Compton

Exodus Lost reopens cold cases from antiquity and
applies cutting-edge science, classical scholarship, and tenacity to solve
them. The adventure begins with Aztec and Mayan chronicles of an epic voyage
across the Atlantic Ocean. By mapping the details within these texts, the
author tracks down their lost homeland and corroborates the local traditions of
an ocean-crossing long before Columbus. This discovery leads to new insights
into the origins of Mexican and Western civilizations, the Bible (including new
archaeological evidence for two major biblical events), the alphabet, and much
more. Enter a world of exploration and discovery, mystery and revelation.
Whether your passion is archaeology or religion, history or simply a great
adventure, Exodus Lost delivers. Beautifully illustrated with 126 photos, maps,
and engravings.

About
the Author:

S. C. Compton has been fascinated with ancient
civilizations since childhood adventures living in the rainforests of Peru with
his grandparents and exploring Incan ruins in the nearby Andes. For his
forthcoming book, Compton used satellite photography to find a legendary lost
city, became the first American to summit Mt. Cudi (for centuries a sacred site
to all Western religions and the only place where they worshipped in unison),
visited archaeological sites in Iraq during the war, photographed ruins and
artifacts that had never been captured on film before, was captured by PKK
guerrilla fighters in Turkey, and also spent countless exciting hours hunched
over books, scholarly papers, and a laptop. Compton holds degrees from Shimer
College, Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago and has studied
at Oxford University and in Switzerland at L’Abri. He currently edits academic
journals for Oxford University Press and has written one previous book, Exodus
Lost.

What inspired you to
write Exodus Lost?

Growing up, I had family connections
in Peru (where I spent some time living with my maternal grandparents) and Guatemala
(where my father’s aunt, Helen Neuenswander, started a hospital, translated the
Bible into Mayan, and did scholarly work). While formally studying Western
Civilization, I privately read everything I could find about the ancient
civilizations of the Americas and grew interested in a mystery.

When the first Europeans arrived from across the Atlantic
Ocean, the Aztec emperor Montezuma welcomed them with a speech telling them
that his own ancestors had come from across that same ocean long ago. The
Aztecs and Maya both included this tradition of an ancient ocean-crossing in
their histories. If it were true it would rewrite history.

When I first looked into it, I didn’t expect to find much.
Western academia can be rather condescending toward non-Western historical
traditions and tends to dismiss these accounts as primitive myths. But the more
I researched them, the more I found them to be remarkably accurate. It turned
into a personal detective story. Following the clues from the ancient accounts
and weighing them against the latest archaeological, linguistic, and
epigraphical evidence led to the Hyksos, who invaded and ruled northern Egypt
for a century before fleeing a naval assault and disappearing from history.

How long did it take
you to write this book?

I got the idea for the core research in Oxford in 1996. I
pursued it as a graduate school thesis from 96 through 99. Then I developed it
into a book through 2010. So 14 years. And numerous research trips to
archaeological sites, museums, and research libraries in Mexico, Europe, the
US, the Middle East, and Egypt.

What books and
authors have most influenced you?

For Exodus Lost, I spent years reading archaeological excavation reports,
academic papers, Spanish chronicles from the time of the conquest, early
Mesoamerican codices, etc. There are more than 700 endnotes. I documented
everything meticulously there for the sake of academics so that I could leave
the text itself accessible and interesting for the average reader.

Do you have a current
work in progress?

Yes, I’m excited about the new book! It looks
at the ancient accounts of a Great Flood and starts by correlating their claims
with actual data on the history of the Earth’s climate taken from tree rings,
ice cores, sea sediments, etc. It turned out that there is substantial physical
evidence for a global cataclysm in the 32nd century BC, just when so many
ancient traditions claim that a great flood devastated the Earth. This time saw
a rapid drop in temperature, an extreme surge in global precipitation levels,
the most intense spike in atmospheric sulfur ever recorded, and the lowest
levels of cosmogenic nuclides. Both the physical data and the ancient accounts
pinpoint the same place of origin in the night sky. In short, the evidence from
all sides indicates a water impact by a Beta-Taurid asteroid.

I thought that would be the heart of the book,
but then I started visiting the places associated with the Great Flood in Iraq
and Turkey (as well as the British Museum, the Louvre, and so on). The earliest
traditions, including those from ancient Assyria and early Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, all claimed that ship of the flood survivors landed on
Mt. Cudi in southern Turkey. However, the area has been dominated by violence
for so long that its contents were not well known. I was able to become the
first American to summit the mountain and to take the first ever photographs of
several significant sites, including what was traditionally believed to be the
Ark. Along the way, I discovered a lost city that ancient geographers claimed
was the oldest city in the world. I also endured several misfortunes, including
being captured by guerrilla fighters.